You Only Hurt The Ones You Love
by ERoc901 Tha Clean Up Man
Summary: After Kral Zera, Keith confronted the team over what happened after Lotor became the New Emperor of the Galra Empire and he was not pleased. After a back and forth argument, they got into a fist fight that led to Keith falling out with his former teammates.


Disclaimer: Voltron Legendary Defender is the property of Dreamworks and Netflix.

Authur's Note: I know I haven't been posting some fanfic in a minute. It's just that I was busy with work while I was writing other fanfics like upcoming Super Soldier Switch for Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and such. Anyway I came up with this after I listening to hit songs like _Human_ by _Rag'n'bone Man_ , _Monster_ by _Imagine Dragons_ , _Numb_ by _Linkin Park_ and _1-800-272-8255_ by _Logic_. This one takes place after the episode Zral Zera went off and I felt that there were unresolved issues between Keith and the Paladins of Voltron. But I gotta warn ya, there will be OOC in this one.

* * *

After Lotor was able to lit up the flame of Kral Zera and officially crowned as the new Emperor of the Galra Empire, the Paladins of Voltron returned to the Castle and now on their way to the bridge of the ship.

"Great work on making sure that Lotor succeeded on becoming Emperor everyone. I'm glad that you realized that I was right all along." Shiro congratulated everyone on the job well done but none of them were pleased with their leader doing that behind their back when they disagreed with his plan to help Lotor claim the Throne of the Galra Empire.

"With all due respect Shiro, don't get ahead of yourself." Hunk disagreed, warning him.

Lance added by exclaiming "Yeah, man! What were you thinking sneaking out of the Castle, flying the Black Lion with Lotor at the Galra..."

"Don't ever question my actions or decisions again." Shiro cut Lance off by warning him "I did was necessary to make sure that the tide keeps on turning in our favor."

"At what cost? That's twice in the row you put us all in jeopardy!" Allura argued.

"No! I did the right thing and you're all just too stupid to realize that! Zarkon is finally gone and his son Lotor who is now our alley is now the new Emperor of the Galra Empire! There are still several Galras that are strongly loyal to Zarkon still on the loose!" Shiro argued back.

"You're right about one thing, except that the Galra Civil War is commencing under Lotor's reign right now and that would lead to disastrous and dangerous consequences and repercussions even as we speak!" Hunk responded by stating the facts. "That's the part that scares me and worries me the most.

"I agree with Hunk. The fact that you flew the Black Lion alone on Galra territory along with Lotor is one of the most reckless and dangerous things you've done since Keith quit the team and gave you back your leadership position." Pidge added.

"To hell with Keith!" Lance shouted. "He quit the team because he's a coward, a hypocrite, a lousy leader and a even lousier teammate! Deep down that hotheaded idiot is incapable of staying with us since he valued the Blade of Marmora over us!"

"But Lance, we tried to convince him to stay and remind him that he's more important as a Paladin than the Blades despite him being part Galra." Allura tried to reassure Lance but he would have none of it.

"Yeah, a part Galra who tried to commit suicide because he just couldn't..." Lance cut off once again when an angry Allura delivered a hard slap cross the face.

"Don't you dare say that again Lance." Allura sternly warned Lance. "That will be addressed when we see Keith again. If the Blade of Marmora allows him to."

"Speaking of which Princess, Keith is at the bridge of the Castle." Coran announced over the speaker.

"Good. Now we can finally address his actions regarding his suicide attempt." Allura said.

"Come on!" Shiro directed as the Paladins stormed toward the Bridge.

When they arrived, they saw Keith in his Blade of Marmora uniform and he really, really angry at his former fellow Paladins over what transpired on Planet Feyvi.

"Okay, Keith has a angry look on his face. This can't be good." Hunk started panicking, only to get pushed aside by Lance who went to confront the former Paladin.

"No, Hunk! We should be angry at him! That idiot..." Lance once again got cut off when Keith ran to him and punched him real hard in the face which caused the Blue Paladin to fall on his back.

"I knew it, I knew it!" Hunk exclaimed.

"Keith, what the hell?!" Pidge cried.

"Y-Y-You didn't have to do that, Keith!" Coran protested.

Matt Holt arrived and demanded "What's going on?"

"Keith, what is wrong with you?" Allura added.

"Shut up! All of you!" Keith growled at everybody, only for Shiro to grab him by the collar of his Blade uniform.

"No, Keith! You're in serious trouble! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't teach you a painful lesson over the course of your actions?!" Shiro demanded, only for Keith to Judo flip him and deliver a brutal Uppercut to the chin that caused him to spin sideways to the flour.

"This is your fault, Shiro! Because of you and Lotor, my mission was a failure! You put me and my fellow Blades in jeopardy and Kolivan scolded him over the communicator when my fellow Blades reported to him over what you did! If you haven't done that, none of this wouldn't happen!" Keith yelled and reprimanded him.

"I know Keith but it was the only to make sure that Lotor becomes Emperor of the Galra Empire!" Shiro defended his actions.

"But he could turn against us by the drop of the hat now he's the Emperor and he could very follow in his father's footsteps!" Keith argued.

"No, Keith! He won't! If he wanted to, he would have!" Shiro reassured.

"Not like you did that to us, Keith!" Lance added as he turned Keith around, punched him in the abdomen and then the face before demanding "And speaking of which, what you thinking trying to commit suicide by attempting to ram the force field to try to destroy the cannon?!"

Keith replied by hitting Lance in the abdomen with his knee strike and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to the face.

"I was trying to help destroy the damn thing because all of our weapons weren't powerful enough to destroy that damn cannon! It was the only way to save you idiots if Voltron was unable to do it!"

"No, Keith! That is not true! You were throwing your life away because you've been consumed by the Blade of Marmora mentality! The same mentality that caused you put all of us in jeopardy!" Allura disagreed, scolding the former Red Paladin over the suicide attempt.

"She's right, Keith! You did that a dozen times in a row and we were almost killed because of you!" Pidge added, which angered Keith even further.

"Oh, really? Well, let me tell you guys like this. You accuse me of putting everyone in jeopardy when it's obvious to me that you did that yourselves the entire time, the moment you stopped listening to me and went back to taking orders from Shiro who's been trying to stop me from getting us to hunt down Lotor so we could take him out! The more you listen to Shiro, the more I feel less part of the team and the leader! When I realized that, I decided to join the Blade of Marmora full time so I could hunt down Lotor and take him out myself because I realized that we could never be a team again! I'm not the only one who threw it all away and put the entire team and the entire universe in jeopardy because you did it too!" Keith angrily raising his voice and responded by scolding the Paladins, reminding and stating their own flaws to them, which completely stunned them to their core.

"Coran, is this true?" Allura asked her caretaker with a shameful voice in her voice.

"I hate to say it princess but I'm afraid he's right." Coran answered. "We were too busy reprimanding Keith and not owning up to our mistakes.

"NO!" Shiro yelled. "I don't agree with that statement at all!"

"Aw, c'mon, Shiro! Keith gave us a response about us reprimanding him for the wrong reasons and we didn't give him a chance to develop his leadership skills which led to us pushing the poor guy away when we disagree with him over Lotor and a lifetime supply of Quintessence that the Galra was collecting from planet to planet after planet!" Hunk stated before getting slapped in the back of his head by Lance.

"No way, Hunk! Keith is making up excuses over why he's not a Paladin of Voltron anymore because he quit the team like a coward and hypocrite that he is!" Lance argued.

"Seiz the shithead who grew an ego the size of the entire planet who's insecure about his abilities and his contributions to the team and being really scared deep down inside! Not to mention that he never got laid in his miserable life!" Keith countered with insults of his own, just enough to stun Lance.

"K-K-Keith, y-y-you take that back!" Lance stuttered.

"Why should I? You're the one who's been trying to belittle me as an excuse to start a rivalry over who's really the best pilot out of the two of us." Keith shrugged.

"It doesn't matter about that anymore. All that matters that you're way out of line. I told you not to hang with the Blade of Marmora at the team's expense but you're just too stubborn and selfish to listen and lead the Paladins!" Shiro told Keith off." That's exactly what you are, selfish!"

"Selfish?! You're calling me selfish?! Was I selfish when I allowed you to reform your bond with the Black Lion so you can continue to lead in my absence? Was I selfish when I was about to make the ultimate sacrifice to in my attempt to destroy the shields and that cannon because I care about you guys more than myself because my life doesn't matter anymore and everyone else is?! Was I also selfish in my desperate attempts to hold on to my bond with you guys because I was afraid that you'd eventually turn your backs on me by abandoning and rejecting me after my parents left me behind when I was still young?!" Keith responded, revealing his true feelings to everyone and then tears started to drop from his eyes.

"Yes, you are, Keith. Selfish enough to push us away." Shiro said with a cold hearted expression.

"Shiro, do not say that." Allura told Shiro off.

"STAY OUT OF THIS PRINCESS!" Shiro raised his voice at the Altean Princess which frightened her and forced her to step back.

Keith with a painful tone in his voice said "Shiro, I thought we were like brothers. I thought we were the only family we had left when my dad died and my mom was gone. But I was wrong. You threw it all away by forcing out of the team, turning everything upside and berated me. You did all of this to me because YOU BETRAYED ME!"

Shiro lost his composure and grunted "That's it, Keith! You're a dead man!" before he charged toward Keith and they got into a fight.

"Oh, shit! They're really fighting!" Hunk cried.

"Guys, no!" Matt pleaded.

"Keith, Shiro stop it! Stop it both of you!" Allura followed but they ignored their pleads and kept fighting.

"Shut up and stay out of this!" Shiro told them not to interfere as he delivered a hard punch to the abdomen and then the face.

"I'm going to teach this young punk a painful lesson!"

"No, Shiro! For your betrayal, I'm going to kill you!" Keith growled as he tackled his former mentor and let a series of devastating punches to the face.

"Keith stop! You're killing him!" Allura pleaded but still fell into deaf ears as Keith with all of his pent up anger kept pummeling Shiro.

"It's no use, Allura! Keith is out of control! He's turned into a wild animal!" Pidge said.

"More like a savage Galra trapped in a human body!" Hunk added.

"We gotta stop him! C'mon!" Lance directed as they ran toward the them.

Lance, Hunk, Pidge and Matt were able to restrain Keith and got him off of Shiro who was spitting blood from his mouth.

"Dammit! Let me go!" Keith insisted as he struggled to get free.

"Sorry Keith ol' buddy, ol' pal, ol' friend, ol' dear buddy but this is for your own good!" Hunk responded.

"We can't let you do this to Shiro!" Matt added.

"And more importantly, we can't let you do this to us either!" Pidge followed.

Lance took advantage of this situation and punched Keith in the abdomen.

"Lance stop that! We're supposed to restrain him, not holding him so he could be your own personal punching bag!" Hunk said.

"Hunk, shut up! He deserved everything for what he put all of us through!" Lance shrugged as he delivered another punch to the abdomen.

"And that's exactly what he's getting." Shiro sneered as Lance kept giving shot after shot to Keith.

"Cut it out Lance! You're only trying to provoke him!" Pidge warned Lance but Lance persisted.

"Butt out Pidge!" Lance shouted with anger in his eyes.

"Paladins stop it right now! That's an order!" Allura pulled rank and barked at them.

After seeing Keith getting angrier and angrier, Coran warned "Too late!"

Keith managed to get everyone off of him and delivered a powerful punch to Lance's face, a fierce roundhouse kick to Pidge's chest, a devastating jumping headbutt to Hunk that caused him to fall flat on his back and leg swept both Matt and Coran before he tackled Shiro once again and continued to punch Shiro in the face.

"Keith, stop it! Please!" Allura tried to intervene but Keith inadvertently struck her across the face, which shocked everyone in their core, including Keith himself.

"ALLURA!" Keith cried out as he got off of Shiro.

After seeing her crying, a remorseful Keith with every once of regret apologized "Allura, I-I-I'm sorry."

He wanted to check on her but Coran halted "No, Keith. I'm sorry lad but you've done enough." as tried to console and comfort her.

Everyone gave Keith the angry daggers, except for Hunk who has showed concern over what just happened.

Shiro with a hatred look on his face decked Keith to the chest and growled "Get out and don't come back here ever again." before throwing him toward the door.

After realizing that he was blinded by his rage and hurt everyone in the bridge of the castle, Keith began to runaway as fast as he could with the realization that his bridges with the Paladins of Voltron has been completely burned.

* * *

At the Shuttle Bay where his Galra Fighter is, a heartbroken hearted Keith being distraught over what he did to Allura fell on his knees and started crying.

"No. I don't deserve this. I really, really don't deserve to live." Keith wailed with tears on his face, pulled out his Blade and attempted to commit Seppuku.

"Well, everyone, including you Allura, this is goodbye." Keith proceeded to stab himself in the chest but somehow or another he was stopped by Kolivan of all people.

"Kolivan?" Keith gasped. "Why are you..."

"Your journey is not over, Keith. Don't throw your life away after everything that transpired here today." Kolivan said.

"But I hit Allura in the face after my fight with the Paladins spiraled out of control!"

"I know. Heal your wounds and make amends with them later. Right now, you're needed back to base." Kolivan instructed. "And Keith, don't let your emotions cloud your judgement ever again."

Keith closed his eyes and replied "You're right. I won't."

"Keith." Keith turned around and saw Allura with tears in her eyes who asked "Will I ever see you again?"

With a sad smile, Keith answered "Only time will tell at this point."

And then both tears of Keith and Allura dropped simultaneously with the realization that they may never see each other.

Keith and Kolivan got inside the Galra Fighter and flew away from the Castle of Lions all the back to the Blade of Marmora Headquarters.

After seeing Keith and Kolivan take off through the window of the Castle Bridge, Shiro let out an evil smile with his eyes glowing evilly yellow and spoke in Haggar's wicked voice.

"Perfect. One down and five more to go."


End file.
